Maybe It's Not The End
by Rethink
Summary: Kurtis dies in the Strahov and Lara slips into a dark mood. She decides to take a selfrejuviating trip, but she runs into someone needing her help...will she give up tomb raiding or help this man?
1. Chapter 1

The grin was replaced with a look of horror. Kurtis looked down to see the tip of the claw poking through his shirt. He grunted as it was pulled viciously from his body.  
"NO!" Lara yelled. Kurtis's Chirugai flew out from under his arm and decapitated the monster. Its head rolled across the floor as he fell onto his hands and knees. Crimson began to stain his shirt as he collapsed the floor.  
Lara began to frantically look for a way down. Grabbing onto the ledge, she lowered herself down until his fingertips were on the edge. Closing her eyes, she let go.  
Landing caused pain and fire to shoot up her legs. She hobbled over to Kurtis and rolled him over. Blood seeped from the wound heavily. Lara reached up and placed her hand over the wound and applied pressure.  
"Hey, you're not supposed to be this nice." He whispered. She froze as he opened his electric blue eyes under her. Lara pulled her hand back and it was covered in blood. The injury in his stomach continued to bleed.  
"Oh bugger," she whispered, and looked back at Kurtis with tears welling in her eyes, "What am I supposed to do when someone I care about...or love, is hurt?" Kurtis reached up and grasped a hold of her clean hand. Kissing her palm, he placed on his chest, over his heart. Lara rested her head against his fore head and began to cry softly. His heartbeat was beginning to slow.  
"Shh, angel, shh..."he said quietly. Lara opened her tear-stained eyes and moved a lock of his hair away from his face.  
"I love you." He said.  
  
He closed his eyes...  
And his chest stopped rising.  
Lara looked from Kurtis's face to the large light up above. More tears began to steam down her face as she looked back down. She caressed his face with the back of her hand.  
Lara moved herself down along Kurtis's body and tried to get as close as she could. Holding onto his arm, she rested her head against his shoulder. The exhaustion of running from everything in her life began to wash over her as she began to fall asleep.  
  
Many hours later, Lara awoke with a start. Slowly she eased herself up off the hard floor.  
Kurtis was gone. She swung her head around. But all there was was a red tint to the floor beside her. And the Chirugai. It was lying on the floor a few paces from her. Wiping her nose, she clambered to her feet and walked towards it. Picking it up from the floor, the blades snapped out of the grip as she held it. An orange glow began to emanate from it she turned it and looked it over. Placing her pack on the ground, she closed the blades and slid it in. Placing it on her back, she began to find a way into the Lost Domain  
  
Four Months Later...  
  
Lightning and thunder danced through the clouds above Croft Manor. Lara sat at the window of her room, examining the gun she held in her hand. Lightning ran through the dark sky again, showing her tired face. She looked to the writing table beyond her bed. Sighing, she got up from the sill and walked to it, throwing her gun down in the middle of the bed. Lara pulled open the drawer and the orange glow illuminated the depression on her face that she had suffered with since the day she walked out of the Strahov.  
She lifted the Chirugai out of the drawer along with a letter she had written that morning. Setting then down onto the bed, she turned and reached into the closet and pulled out the bag the she had also packed. As she set it down onto the bed, Lara put her gun into it. She grabbed the Chirugai and the orange glow disappeared as it went into the bag. As she zipped it up, Lara took a glance at the letter she had placed on top of her pillows. It read:  
  
My dear Winston,  
  
I am sorry for leaving and not saying good bye or not letting you know where I am going. But the events that happened over 4 months ago and in Egypt have come to make me see that there is more to life than archaeological expeditions, or tearing my body to pieces to show the world that I am not some snot who lives in a big mansion with lots of money. You know what, you said once that no man would ever be able to attain himself to be my equal...but someone did. I held him in my arms as he took his last breaths. I have never been the same since. I'm leaving this place for a while and learn more about myself as a normal human...not Lara Croft, the renowned tomb raider. I'll be fine, you don't need to worry about me. I'll be back as soon as I can.  
  
Sincerely with love,  
Lara  
  
She wiped at the tears that were forming in her eyes. Lara moved to the chair by the window and pulled her jacket off of it. She grabbed her bag off the bed and made her way out of her room.  
Lara quietly strode through her home and made her way to the front door. Before she opened it, she turned and faced the large foyer and the grand staircases leading the upstairs. Tears brimmed her eyes as she opened the door and stepped out into the rain.  
Going through the mud, she walked to her garage off the main gate to the estate. Lara made her way through the maze of cars and motorcycles until she got to the newest addition to her collection...  
  
Kurtis's bike.  
  
She picked the helmet off the bike seat and kicked the doors open. Rolling the bike out, she pushed it towards the gate. Lara pushed the button to open the gate and climbed onto the motorcycle. Strapping on the helmet and throwing the bag onto her back, she revved the engine and slipped it into gear. A thunderous roar echoed through the night and in her ears and she rode towards the empty night, tears running down her face.  
  
Winston stood at the window in his nightclothes; in his hand clutched was the letter. He looked at it again and looked back to Lara as she pulled out of the courtyard. One tear streamed down his cheek as he whispered, "Take you time."  
  
(A/N: hey guys, thanks for reading my story. Those who have read it before may notice some of the revisions that have been made to it. I would like to thank afi13dragonfly for her help in making this story into something better for everyone else to read. Anything else that can be made to the story to make it better would be greatly appreciated. Anyways...onwards to Chapter 2!) 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2  
  
Glasgow, Scotland.  
  
Lara swung off the bike and made her way into the local pub. She lifted her sunglasses off her eyes and placed them on her head. Pulling a stool out from under the bar, she sat herself down. The bartender walked down and set a glass on the table.  
"Anything ye want lass?" he asked.  
"Just something strong." She replied. Lara glanced over shoulder and look around. Not many people were there. There were two men having a quiet conversation in the corner.  
A clink of a glass caught her attention as the man set down a glass filled with a brown liquid. She picked it up and drowned it. The man watched her with awe as she swallowed.  
"My god...Mary and Joseph." He whispered. Lara felt the burn all the way down to her stomach. For the first time since she left home she finally felt warm. Lara had been out on the road for about a month, rooming with strangers and traveling the back roads. She was hoping to get a ticket out of here to another place in the world.  
"Do ye want 'nother one?"  
She smiled as she held back a cough. "No, thank you though." he returned the smile and went back to work.  
The door opened as a cocky old man with a wide tooth grin walked in and surveyed the room. He noticed a pretty lady sitting at the bar, looking at her empty glass. He staggered over and slid in beside her.  
"Hey there pretty lass, th' name's Douglas."  
Lara, already disliking the man and the whiskey on his breath, glanced at him and looked back at her glass. The man waved at the bartender and flashed a toothy grin as he motioned for two drinks.  
Douglas leaned a little backwards in his seat and took a long look at Lara's derriere. He smiled again at Lara as he reached over and placed his hand there and rubbed affectionately.  
"Wanna go with me somewhere a little more private?"  
Lara pulled his fist back and punched him. The crunch of teeth being knocked out was heard. He fell off his bar stool landed with a crash to the floor. She kicked him in his side onto his back and pressed down into his chest with her boot.  
"Do not ever touch me again, unless you want a new hole to breathe out of." She looked up at the bartender, who stared with fright in his eyes. Getting up off of him, she slammed her money onto the table and walked out the door. Lara started the bike and roared off again down the road.  
The sound of another bike began to slowly come into her range of hearing. Turning her head, around she saw a man coming at her a black touring motorcycle. He rose up a gun and began to fire at her.  
Ah bugger...probably after me for what I did, Lara thought, but no person is going to take pot shots at me.  
She reached into her bag and pulled out one of her guns, she aimed behind her and fired. The front tire on the bike blew and began to spin out of control. The driver went flying over the handlebars and rolled over the blacktop.  
Lara skidded the bike in a one-eighty and zoomed back the fallen motorcycle and its driver. She climbed off of it and walked towards the body.  
The person rolled over and pointed the gun at her. Her fast reflexes kicked it out from the hand that gripped it. It went into the bushes across the road.  
"Get up." She commanded. The rider balanced onto his hands and knees, and then clambered on up to stand. Lara's gun was on the taller person as the helmet came off.  
Lara saw electric blue.  
Memories began to flash before her eyes... 


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Lara or Kurtis, they belong to Edios/Core. Anything else that doesn't come from Lara's world is mine. Now on with the story! **

**Chapter 3 **

_**A clang of metal against metal…**_

**Warm skin… **

_**Removal of a hard earned object…**_

_**To be rewarded with…**_

_**Electric blue eyes staring with intent and wonder.**_

**Lara shook her head to clear it and looked to the man standing before her…**

**It wasn't him.**

**She gave him the look over. The first thing to catch her eye was his jet-black hair and his eyes. A black lather jacket covered the burgundy tee shirt underneath. Black leather chaps went over blue denim jeans. The bottom was finished out with black boots poking out from the worn hem of the chaps. His handsome face held her for a second. He was clean-shaven and had chiseled features. **

**"Who are you?" Lara asked. She lowered her gun a bit as she looked at him with questioning eyes.**

**"Why should I tell you who I am after you shot my bike tire out and kicked my gun into the bushes?" he retorted back, setting his helmet onto the ground in front of him. **

**_He's an American. _Lara brought the gun back up and pressed it to the center of his chest. She cocked it.**

**"Ok then, let's start somewhere else," Lara said, "I'm Lara Croft, and I was just recently sitting in a bar trying to have a drink, and some ass of a man came walking in and thought he could get himself into my britches. I let him know what my answer a good one in the kisser…so if you're here to get the revenge for it," she pulled the gun off his chest and stepped back, "you're going to have get this gun out of my hand before you lose something important"**

**Lara's gun went flying into the bushes to join the one that was already there.**

**"Little girls use threats like that…I need to talk to you." He took a step closer to her. Lara reached into her jacket and pulled the gun that was holstered under her arm. She raised next his face and fired a warning shot past his ear.**

**He didn't even blink. Instead he reached over and pulled it out of her hand. It joined it mate across the road**

**"Let's start again shall we, since both you and I have no weapons to kill each with now. My name is Oden McCarthy, and yours is Lara Croft. Nice to meet you, Lara." He held his hand out to her. Lara ignored his open hand and turned her head away. Oden shook his head and reached over, grasping a hold of her hand at her side and giving it a firm shake.**

**"There…that wasn't so hard," he said, "now, I came all the way here to come and find you. You are the renowned tomb raider, right, or am I looking at someone who just has the same name?"**

**Lara's thoughts raced…she didn't want to go anywhere with a stranger she had just took a shot at and didn't blink when it went whizzed pass his ear…but she was bored with staying here. It was like being in a cage.**

**"I am Lara, yes, the same renowned tomb raider you speak of."**

**Oden nodded his head. "I need your help in the search of an artifact. It's located in Africa" **

**"What part of Africa?"**

**"Around the Niger River…near the location of the ancient cities of the African Kingdoms**

**"Does this thing have a name or is it just some piece of rock you want me to look at so you cash in on my fame?" Lara asked. Oden put up his hands.**

**"Hey listen, if you don't want to go and enjoy another adventure in the wide open world…that's fine." Oden turned and began to walk towards his fallen bike. **

**"Wait!" Lara yelled as she ran over to him. Oden was looking at the flat tire on his bike as she touched his shoulder. "I'm sorry Oden, I haven't had a good adventure in the last couple of years… that's all."**

**He looked up and stood. For the first time, Lara's mind wandered.**

**_He's good-looking…_she pushed those thoughts out of her head as Kurtis stepped into the picture of her mind.**

**_Nonono…not now._ **

**"Lara?"**

**She shook her head and looked to Oden. "How did you find me up here?"**

**Oden pointed at her long braid. "I think anyone would suspect you're Lara Croft with that thing hanging down your back." He turned and nodded towards her bike. "That looks familiar to me too…. I can't just put it to owner…"**

**"It belonged to a man named Kurtis Trent." Lara spitted out without thinking. Oden swiveled on his heel and stared at her.**

**"Kurtis…where is he? Is he your boyfriend or something…or did you kill him and take it?"**

**Lara shook her head. "I didn't kill him. Kurtis died fighting a monster…and no, I was never his girlfriend but…"**

**"But what? Does that give you the right to take his bike? He'd probably want that thing buried next to him where ever he is…did you buried him here in this godforsaken country—"**

**Lara's hand went across Oden's face like lightning. "Don't ever say that again about my home. And to let you know…I don't know where his body is. I'm not going into the very long story of my last adventure. Now about this artifact that's got us fighting already…anything else you can tell me about it?"**

**"Oh no, you are not going to change the subject on me. What the hell happen to Kurtis that he didn't make through…that boy could get himself in a pile of messes and would come out unscathed."**

**Lara put up a hand. "Wait a minute…how did you know him?"**

**"Kurtis and I were members of the Foreign Legion. All the guys in our regiment called him the "Demon Hunter" for all these strange things that happened to him when he was with us…then he left mysteriously." Oden rubbed the back of his neck. "I found him a couple years later working for a mercenary group. We exchanged pleasantries and he disappeared again. I then heard that his father had been gruesomely murdered…" Oden paused, thinking, "I haven't seen him since. I was told that he was in France looking for revenge for his father. When I got to Paris, I found where he was staying. People there told me that he had left abruptly after a trip to the Louvre. They also informed me he was heading to the Czech Republic from what they picked up from Kurtis on the telephone in the lobby when he was arranging transportation. I got there and found his bike outside of a top-secret building called the Strahov. I also found out you were in there from a man named Luddick. I put two and two together and knew you and Kurtis must have met up and been working together in there. I left because I couldn't get in, and then returned the next day to find the place surrounded by crime tape and international police around it. His bike was gone, so I decided to come here because you two must have had come here to get out of everyone's hair."**

**Lara was listening intently. "Why would you have tracked Kurtis all the way here from across Europe?"**

**"The artifact in Africa is somehow connected to what ever group Kurtis was in. I don't remember the name, but I've heard from the local tribesmen that strange men with the power to move earth would come once ever while to the temple where the artifact is supposed to be located. Us guys at the Legion knew Kurtis was a member and was able to do some pretty strange things like some sort of x-ray vision and pushing us from harm's way with his mind. We all got use to it after a while. When I showed them a picture of the regiment when Kurtis and I were in it, they pointed at him and said that he had spent a few nights with them as a younger man.**

**"Kurtis was a member of a group called the Lux Veritatis…the tribesmen was pretty close in their description of what they could do. The Lux Veritatis were involved with the supernatural forces and beings. They have been working throughout the world since the fourteenth century." Lara replied. "What is the name of this artifact…it's the only thing I don't know now."**

**Oden looked to the long roadway ahead of them "In the tribes native tongue it is translated to 'the link between earth and sky'…but we call it the Impact Stone. The reason for the name is because if what you say about Kurtis is true for his death, then the stone will begin to self-destruct since the members of Lux Veritatis are gone. My looking into this shows that the members kept it under their control with the rituals they performed there. All new initiates were brought there for joining the Lux Veritatis. The stone came under the radar of many scientists and archaeologists about four months ago when earthquakes and changes in weather patterns began happening, about the time you left Prague."**

**Lara rubbed her forehead. "Okay, so lemme get this straight…now that Kurtis has died, the world is going to hell."**

**Oden smiled. "Yeah, you could say that."**

**Lara looked to the setting sun. "Then how are we going to save the planet from complete destruction?"**

**"The records of the Lux Veritatis say there is a opposite to this stone. This one is called the Alcea Stone. Unfortunately, its location has never been recorded."**

**"That's nice…going to have to search the world to find a piece of rock." Lara said, exasperated. "You know what…just leave me alone and let the world go to hell, because for me…I'm sick of trying to save it when all it does is take away parts of my life." Lara turned and walked towards her bike.**

**"Like Kurtis?" Oden said behind her. Lara turned back to Oden. He was taken back by how she looked so despondent and lonely.**

**"No." Lara whispered. She reached for her guns in the bushes and strapped them back into their holsters as she walked to her bike and tossed a leg over it. Oden looked at his bike and then back to as she lowered the visor on her helmet.**

**"Hey, wait a minute!" He started in a dead run towards the bike as it came to life. Lara didn't even look back as she revved and pulled away from him. Oden stood in the middle of the road as the bike picked up speed.**

**He tuned back to the bike that was lying in the road. He ran his finger though his hair and looked back to the winding road back to the town he had chased Lara out of. He leaned over and hoisted the bike back up onto two wheels and looked it over.**

**But he wasn't able to look the bike over for damage…his thoughts were on Lara. He needed her to come help him with this stone problem. The world was starting to take notice of there being something wrong.**

**_But_ _Kurtis is gone? _Oden thought as he set the bike back down onto the ground and sat himself next to it. His best friend had died…and this woman he had met was very sensitive on the subject. He wondered why as he rubbed his chin. Oden knew he was going to be hauling the heavy motorcycle back to town, but he wanted to just sit and think about he first impression he received from Lara Croft. Lara no longer had the heart for the tomb raiding she had done in the past. He had heard about her mysterious death in Egypt and her return when the French officials cleared her in all charges of murder for the man who had left her for dead. Oden was getting the sense that maybe she was done and out of being the tomb raider and saving the world.**

**Oden sighed and got back up. He reached for the bike handles and heaved it up onto two wheels and began to push it back to town.**

**_I need to get her to help me, somehow, some way. _He thought to himself.**

**Then it began to pour.**

**A/N: hi people, sorry for the long time between chapters…been busying with my life and school. I hop you enjoy this and chapter 4 will be coming as soon as I can finish it. A special thanks to my best friend who reads this and gives me her god-honest opinion. Love ya! Also thanks to all that have reviewed…your comments is what makes writing better!**


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